2 cups of flour (can be gluten free)
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
¾ cup (11/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
¼ cup sugar plus more for rolling
½ cup molasses
1 large egg
I have looked the internet
over for a good, old world recipe for the beloved ginger snap cookie. There are a lot of variations and styles that
run the spectrum from soft and gooey to hard as a rock. Some have fancy gourmet ingredients like
mango, quail eggs or lime zest, some are as simple as 5 ingredients. They ALL however have two common ingredients,
that make them ginger snaps, ginger (obviously) and molasses. These two ingredients are the foundations
upon which any respectable ginger snap is built, and they are the basis of the
life lesson that I think we can all take from this simple, and yet noble snack.
Technically speaking,
ginger is the aromatic and spicy root of the ginger plant, a rhizome. It can
vary in color from red to white, but in the US is commonly yellowish. It is considered an Asian herb native to
southeastern Asia specifically, but is being grown worldwide today as the health
benefits (anti-inflammatory, gastrointestinal, antioxidant) of this superfood
are become more widely known. Its
regularly making appearances in tea, in candy, in dietary supplements, in
Asian inspired dishes at restaurants and yes, as always, in ginger snaps. Its flavor is unmistakable and its health
benefits are undeniable. Ginger rocks.
Molasses is a
bit more complicated, but is more “home grown”. In the South it is commonly referred to as “first
syrup” when it is first processed and is produced from real sugar cane. The
cane is harvested and its leaves are stripped off, then it's crushed to release
its juice. The juice is then boiled to
crystallize the sugar. When the syrup is
boiled a second time, it then becomes molasses, technically, but is bitter and
not the dark color we would be used to. It takes a third boiling to produce
blackstrap molasses, which is what we would normally use in today’s recipes. It contains much less sugar that the first
syrup, as much of the sugar is crystallized and removed. It is called blackstrap not just because of
its dark color, but because it is so thick, especially at cool temperatures
that when you stick a spoon in you don’t just get a spoonful, but a sticky,
slow-moving strap of goo that follows.
What it does contain though, aside from a lot of rich flavor is a pretty
impressive amount of vitamins and several minerals. Just one tablespoon of blackstrap molasses
provides up to 20% of the daily value of calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron! Molasses is some pretty sweet stuff, in more
ways than one!
So why in the world would
I spend time writing about ginger snaps and especially ginger and
molasses?
Because we could all learn
a lot from the reputation of these two ingredients and it would benefit all of
us to add these characteristics to our lives.
We all need to live life
as spicy as ginger, but as slow as molasses.
Plain and simple, just like the ingredients themselves.
Life is meant to be lived,
to be enjoyed and to be adventurous and yes, to be spicy. The
spice of life can be whatever makes you feel alive, whatever gets your energy
levels up and whatever brings out the best in you and those around you. You can spice up life by being in a career that invigorates you and enlivens the ideals and parts of your personality that make you
come alive. You can spice up your life through relationships that encourage you
to be the best version of you there can be and that push you to go beyond safe and
easy. You can spice up your life by
living to serve others and to see the light in the eyes of those whose life you
add spice to. Whatever it is that adds
flavor and zest to your life, find it!
It is only through keeping your life spicy that you can truly have a
life fully lived. Leave out the ginger
and you lose the spice that makes live worth living, the snap!
The spicy part makes
sense. It's fun and it coincides with a
thousand self-help books and motivational speakers. I get that it is nothing
new and not as easily maintained as we would all like. Usually it goes in spurts and then there is a
recovery time and it gets tough to get that energy again to keep that spice
sustained, I get that. This is where the
molasses comes into the picture, you need both to make a good ginger snap,
remember.
Molasses, for all of its
flavor and potential energy, is not nearly as spicy and exciting as
ginger. It is not sexy or sought
after. It isn't advertised as an
ingredient (at least not very often). But
without it a ginger snap would lose its snap and its unique flavor. A life lived fully can’t be one that is lived
out of control, peddle to the floor 100 mph.
A life full and rich and spicy can only be maintained and the spice
sustained if it is lived…s l o
w l y.
Living slowly is not
living a sluggish, lazy or boring lifestyle.
It's living intentionally, consciously and under control. It is choosing face to face contact even when
it takes longer, because it is more meaningful and the people you love are
worth it. It's taking time to ask the
tough question when someone needs to come up with the answers, even if it
means it will take a while longer. It
means sitting down and playing with Legos, even though you would rather get the
lawn mowed because that time will not be there again next year. It is living intentionally OUT of the fast
lane. It is quality over quantity in schedules;
it is face to face and heart to heart versus Facebook posts and 140 character tweets. Living as slow as molasses allows us the
opportunity to add more spice. It allows
us the time and the mental bandwidth to taste what we are cooking, and to
adjust the recipe while there is still time, before our lives are done
baking. It is OK to slow down, it is permissible
to pause, it is wonderful to take back control of the one element that we can
never replace, reuse or replenish, time.
I love ginger snap
cookies. I love the favor, the simplicity, the fact that they are often gluten free but above all else the reminder that they give me each time I see them to live my life as spicy as
ginger, but as slow as molasses.
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